SEO Case Study With Brian Dean
Last updated on May 13, 2019
In this episode you’ll learn how Brian from Backlinko made $100,000 from a 2,000 person email list, the specific metrics for optimizing YouTube videos AND 1 tactic that permanently changed OkDork after this episode.
Brian gives a ton of actionable tips to help improve your SEO and some surprises like having more pages doesn’t necessarily make your site easier to find in search engines. Get ready to take some notes because you’re going to want to use this stuff right away.
Lessons learned in this episode:
- How to not get bored creating niche content.
- With mastery comes greater enjoyment.
- How Brian made $100,000 on a 2,000 person email list.
- Most course purchases are made near closing.
- Simplify your marketing and don't overwhelm your customers.
- Who's on your list matters.
- Embrace beginners mind to learn new skills.
- Using "pattern interrupts" to make your videos better.
- How and why to buy online courses to shortcut learning.
- Mastering audience retention and why it's important.
- Quantity of information is not as important as quality.
- Promotion tips and tricks for new content.
- Avoiding premature automation.
- How to evaluate existing properties for growth.
- Why more content can negatively impact SEO.
- Enhanced and compressed goal setting.
- Delete old content that's not adding value.
The Challenge: Use the step-by-step instructions to delete under-performing content.
Leave a comment and tell me how you did on this week's challenge!
Links discussed in this episode:
Video Creators with Tim Schmoyer
118 responses to “SEO Case Study With Brian Dean”
Great podcast! Do you have any idea what's the 90 day goal setting program name that Brian is using?
Great show.
One request, can you write the summery of whole show in 300 or less words?
That would be so helpful.
Thank you so much.
I have to start deleting pages, but too scared to"kill my darlings"
Very......Very informative show. Thx
Fan of both of you
Great Podcast Noah and Brian. Does Reese peanut butter cups count as a candy bar? Had a question about the deleting of pages. Is it better to just out right delete them or should you setup a no-index instead? Is there any case studies that show this tactic to actually work?
.. I'd have to say a toss up between Mars and Flake (only in Australia I think). What about you, Noah?
Good stuff. One thought: he was able to simplify his last launch and still do such beast numbers because he's since created such a massive amount of authority and trust in this niche.
This is a fantastic podcast.
Great episode! I enjoyed it, and I learned from it.
Great podcast. The only thing I would've added is to 301 redirect the page or pages you are deleting.
Great ideas (I think) but I'm the newest newby there is so I don't really know what I don't know...you know? Haven't started my blog but am researching to figure out how to do this. Thanks for (hopefully) pointing me in the right direction.
Wow, great episode!
There were so many awesome and actionable ideas, but my big take-aways as a total online business newbie were:
#1 - Focus on developing truly high quality content (that's super useful to your niche audience... even if that audience isn't massive)
#2 - Play the long game, and don't be afraid to invest a lot of time/effort into a piece of content (make it evergreen) or learning something deeply
#3 - Simplify your marketing, don't overwhelm your audience
#4 -Think of what you're procrastinating on professionally, get specific, and commit to (re)learning or mastering that with a beginners mind
Entertaining and insightful, I learned a lot!
Reese's Peanut Butter cups are my favorite candy bar.
Love the show! Love how you ask for specifics/ examples and really probe into topics. Thanks for all your hard work.
I really enjoyed your interview with Brian. The questions were excellent. Just what I needed to learn today. Still looking for a way to share my vegan dessert recipes. May use YouTube.
Thanks, Gayle
Twix
One of the most actionable tip-laden podcasts yet! Thx!
Great content on this post. I'm heading on over to Google Analytics to check my stats and prepping myself to delete!
Wanted to give you a thumbs up on Google Play - but they don't give the option to give you a like, that's a bummer.
Instead of YouTube I am embedding private Vimeo Videos on my blog. With YouTube people get distracted with competitor content. I want people to stay with my content. How will the tactics be different for me?
Great show with great tips!
My favourite candy bar is Daim. 🙂
Great podcast! SEO is such obtuse voodoo to me it's great to hear some tangible pointers.
Good stuff fellas. Been focusing on the 100% of stuff that works the last couple weeks so that was good reinforcement. Also relates to the deleting of shit that doesn't.
solid episode, heaps of takeaways. I really like the way you ask questions.
9 Tacos out of 10. Dropped 1 taco for audio quality. I still enjoyed those other 9 tacos...deeeeelish!
Great stuff
There's so many golden nuggets in this episode. I always thought having more content was better, but when Brian explained why less content is better, my mind was blown.
My favorite candy are the gummy bears from Trader Joes. 🙂
I plan to listen a second time!
Loved this episode, particularly the counter-intuitive advice on improving SEO for websites by reducing pages.
Nice episode. My favorite candy bar is Milky Way. Not sure why, but it seems like my first comment disappeared
Hmm, odd, now I can see my first comment. Glitch I guess.
Hey Noah, love this episode, and the podcast in general. Keep up the awesome work.
Interesting tidbit about the way YouTube interprets viewer retention rates from short videos with hgher rates compared to longer videos with a lower viewer retention rate
Great podcast Noah! Aside from the content packed into your interviews, I also take note of how you keep the conversation flowing with relevant questions and how you sprinkle humor throughout. I have the conversational skills of a 4-year old, so your podcast provides a learning opportunity on so many levels.
Thanks again, and I'm already looking forward to your next one. Oh, and my favorite candy bar is prob Mounds, 3 Musketeers a close second. What's yours?
Liked the show. Step-by-step instructions - if you don't know how to do this you shouldn't be here - awesome. My favorite candy bar is Milky Way.
They say your hair grows faster if you cut it often. I guess the same goes with content. Delete those low traffic pages and improve your SEO. Fav candy bar - Ocho bar with caramel and peanuts. I eat two of them at a time they are so good.
Loved this episode! Very insightful
Very interesting interview, this guy rocks in SEO! He must eat tacos all the time...
Great show - now lots of work to implement!
Listened to this a few days ago on my drive home from LA... this was easily the best podcast I've listened to in 6-12 months. Top 10 of all time. You and Brian killed it!
This must have been my favorite podcast episode for quite some time! Loved the whole conversation between Noah and Brian and got lots of input. Can't wait for the next episode, Noah ...
You're so right - "it's 'easy' to find customers when you're very specific". As a marketer who can solve a lot of different problems, that's actually a bad thing for me because people don't always "see" their problems in my solutions. But as I've niched down, I've gotten more traction. Thanks for a great episode!
<3 🙂
It is great to see people committed to quality content. In a society of more is better, we lose sight of the truth: people will respond to quality!
Great stuff. Brain's work has had a massive influence on my own business already. Gonna dig into the notes and apply some more of his ideas this week 🙂
I listened and Love Brian's stuff!
I've been doing SEO for a while now but never thought about his recommendation at the end where he says to delete the pages that are not doing anything for your website. And how you retain more "link juice." Great stuff!
I loved this episode. It as a lot of compacted info and it's inspiring at the same time. Great job Noah and thanks for sharing so much value for FREE! I am always looking forward to Tuesdays!
Great Podcast! I'm a big fan of Brian Dean. I follow his blog and receive his email blast. I highly recommend this episode to anyone in the SEO field. Cheers!
Hi There, Taco Man.
I must say you inspired me.
Brian has an awesome blog and I read almost all of it.
It's great to hear the 2 of you together, which give awesome tips!
Will be happy to hear some tips of you on the start of the blogging way!
Cheers, Taco and Bear, Hell yeah
Thanks for getting him on the show! I've spent over 10 hours since then combing through his stuff. It's been awesome.
This was a great episode, as soon as it was over I went into my site and deleted over 330 'dead weight' pages!
Had the same issue with the super fast audio, was expecting you at the end to say it was intentional, to show how much time you had now saved. Time that should be spent implementing the advice given.
Ha, that would have been funny. It was an error on our side. Should be fixed if you listen to it now. Learning and improving.
Especially loved the ideas of one blog post per month and the 90 day year. Implementing both. Thanks Noah & Brian!
your content is good. I liked your youtube channel. thank you very much for creating videos on youtube. it is very beneficial.
Awesome as always!
Great episode. I am curious about the removing old content part. Would Brian then recommend going out to Google and using their URL removal tool? Not a big candy bar fan, but I can throw down on some Swedish fish.
Great information and a fun listen. It's going to be difficult to fit one year of goals into four months.
I also like Payday; I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but really good!
Great content, clear and actionable! Thanks Noah, gracias Noah!
Hey Noah,
Brian is one of the people I've learnt so much from - he is the man. I've paid for his course and it's paid for itself several times over.
Thing is, Brian cusses a bit less than you, so your stuff is a bit more amusing 🙂
With you Noah, I pay for Sumo and a lot of your stuff, so yeah, I like much of your stuff too.
Today I looked at my stats and found I'm converting 50 emails a day and was really happy, and then along comes Brian and he poops on my party with 350 emails a day 😐
Incidentally, still looking for case studies for Sumo?
Great Podcast! very informative, definitely going to check out his website.
Hey Noah, loving the podcast content!! Brian is a rock star and gives pure gold tips, like always having a beginner's mindset.
Keep bringing awesome practical stuff, I'll keep learning from you and your guests.
Tacos 4 ever!
This episode was hella good. Think less/do more. Delete underperformers...
Noah, one underrated tactic I've noticed over the years is that you are relentless in incentivizing participation/sharing with little easter eggs. What percentage effect do you think that has had on your activities/businesses? Or is it hard to measure?
Just subscribed to Brian's YouTube channel, awesome! Thanks, Noah.
Interesting podcast! I'd live to get a list of some of the best courses Brian has done so far. Brian ?
Excellent episode with a bunch of gold nuggets ??
This is Awesome!!! Thank You for sharing these SEO tips Noah 🙂
Listened! Audio issues never bother me - if you can hear the content then I'm happy.
What a great podcast with some really surprising insight...but you'll have to listen to hear it!
Great episode! One question about deleting posts. Do you just delete or do you delete and add a 440 redirect to let Google know it's deleted? Fave candy bar - Heath Bar FTW!
Loved EVERY SECOND of this!! Thx Noah!
My favorite candy bar is Snickers but I haven't eaten sugar since 1989 so I bet there are way better candy bars on the market. Love the Google analytics recommendation to delete pages that aren't getting traffic.
pretty cool to hear from brian! great insights!
That was awesome dudes! I learned a ton from you both. Thank you!
This interview was hilarious and insightful. Just downloaded all the rest of your episodes and looking forward to binge-listening this werkend. Brian is a rockstar and love his ideas on focus and soecifically, focusing on your niche (and leaving other interests as hobbies).
Keep up the great work Noah.
Great info! Thank you. Love your podcast. Was this episode at a higher speed? I kept checking if I had it 1.5x...
It was a bug when first uploaded. If you play it again it should be fine.
I thought I just had too much caffeine....
Definitely a quality interview. Nice variety of content and actionable tips. Can't wait to apply some of them, though probably not the 90 day year thing. I don't really get it. If you can get it done in 90 days, shouldn't you set a bigger goal? What are you supposed to do for the rest of the year?
I think it's an awesome concept. The point is that focusing on a big goal for completion in 90 days means you eliminate most or all of your wasted time. If you analysed your week, you would probably find that you waste at least 50% of your time doing things that aren't important.
Copying someone else's launch is such a simple but clever idea! Or should I say drawing inspiration from it?!
Good content!
First time listening, really enjoyed it- lots of actionable takeaways. Am deleting non-producing pages off my site now. My favorite candy bar is Caramello.
Noah, I've been following you're content for two years, now I started my own project of Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs (less than a month and already a client), thanks a lot for everything. We will keep using you're material to improve our project.
Very good material, we have to work in our SEO ASAP to start growing our site traffic.
Thanks again!
PS: We are from Argentina, so yes, you are inspiring people worldwide!
I listened last night. Good stuff. I've done a lot of work on my sites, but I've never deleted a ton of comment at once like Brian recommends. But my sites are almost 10 years old, so I'm sure there is a ton of content I can kill.
Was this the one tactic you used to permanently improve OK Dork? Or was it focusing on on your strengths of having experts write about their area of expertise?
Good job! I think this is the best one so far. I like the tactical step-by-step stuff. Keep it up!
Loved the episode, Noah!
As a side note, and as a non-expert, I would suggest making these shows a bit shorter. There was a lot of good stuff in this one, but as I had some other browser windows open and multi-tasking online is super challenging, I lost some of the last half of the show. Just sayin'...
If not overwhelming your customers is a target then I'm sad to say you've failed. Too much content, delivered far to quickly. I'm old and slow (er 50) and probably missed 50% of what was said. There again, the other 50% was useful (in an American way...). Does repetition of the same number (50) help? Yup, that was 50.
Do some brain exercises, man. 50 is the new 30. I'm 51 and I keep up.
Audio was fine for me. Noah Kagan is amazing!
You are amazing!
Great content as usual. Love the technics he uses to keep viewers watching a video!
So true about quality wins the race always over quantity. It's interesting to know that Brian only published around 34 articles in the span of 4 years but the blog is making over $1m in business.
Listened the whole podcast Noah.
Thanks so much for bringing Brian Dean to the podcast.
Keep up the great work!
Interesting rationale behind deleting low-traffic pages. Takes a bit of courage to do it!
I loved this podcast. I am in a very niche market so when he talked about getting bored, it really resonated with me. I find that sometimes I get bored but I think it has more to do with me and my itch to always do something new not so much the content aspect. If that makes sense. Thanks for all that you do.
I don't eat candy bars anymore but when I did? My favorite was Twix.
I listened. Thanks for the tips. As a person starting out it's super helpful when you ask: 1) what's worked best for speaker and 2) an seo tip everyone can take away to. Super helpful!
I liked context of the talk. Thanks for sharing it. I am going to try some of them and will wait for see the results.
Brian is a genius! Tons of inspiring stuff in this ep. Learned a lot during his breakout session at SumoCon too. I think this is a excellent type of guest to have in the future. Basically, anyone of the speakers from SumoCon would be great.
Info from this episode was great. Instead of rewinding a bunch to relisten I set the podcast to 1/2 speed. The 90-day year sounds like something I want to try. At least using it as a time frame for project goals.
Fantastic episode. I'm just learning about SEO now and this one really opened my eyes. Thank you!
More episodes like this! Awesome and actionable content, similar to the 5am episode. Thanks for doing the podcast Noah, loving it so far!
Great work Noah! I really like the advice, life-hacks and information you give in your interviews and videos. No BS and straight to the point. Very practical and beneficial. Keep it up 🙂
Greetings from Amman, Jordan!
Listening right now thanks to the awesome lessons learned list ?
Loved this episode! Super insightful. Brian mentioned he copied someone's launch sequence but I couldn't catch the name – who was it?
Same question,
Please let me know also on whose launch sequence was used, please
The name was Derek Halpern - he da man.
This was definitely a jam packed episode of good info (even if it sounded like it was released at 1.5x speed).
I really like the focus on quality content over quantity. I think that applies to a lot of content-related arenas even beyond SEO. ESPECIALLY as they mature (I think this even applies to social).
This was a really strong podcast, very valuable, insightful, and immediately implementable--most importantly . I started following Brian Dean on Twitter right afterward.
Fantastic info here, never mind crappy audio when the message is so on point!
Congrats again on the $1.5 million purchase of Sumo.com.
This was a great interview from someone I have been itching to hear behind-the-scenes secrets from for a while.
I watch all your YouTube videos to the end, Noah. Do you want to know why? I think if you know, it can really help with your retention and get you thousands of more views per video.
If you want to know, I'll tell you for 7 bucks.
Two of my heroes in one podcast, what's not to love!
Hi Noah,
Loved the content! Especially about work proscastination, and putting more effort into projects and posting less to get better results!
On a side note... I love your enthusiasm, but in parts of the podcast it becomes hard to follow as your pace picks up.
Love your work - Matt
Loved the podcast in general - I'm starting my own business and the tips that you share are encouraging.
Hey!
This was my favourite episode yet. Nice work. Boom.
I do have one question...what was the course that Brian used for learning how to launch?
Thanks!
MC
I really got a lot out of listening to this podcast today. It wasn't a core part of what you talked about, but Brian made the idea of writing and promoting content seem less daunting somehow. Also his course references for Youtube engagement are now on my list of things to check out.
My favorite candy bar is PayDay (mmmm peanuts!)
Not sure if it is just my device but audio sounds really weird on this - maybe it is sped up? Hard to listen to without noticing.
Audio was shitty but content was so good I still wanted publish.
Wrong! Content was GREAT not good.
Hello, Noah. I've been following Brian for a while. Great interview!